Category: Staff

On Tuesday 3rd of March during Block 3 (Periods 5&6) grade 8 will be presenting their Social Entrepreneurship ideas.

Grade 8 would like to invite you to their Social Entrepreneurship presentations.

All teachers are welcome.

Each week the Language Acquisition Post will look at different language related topics. The theme for this week is Common Misconceptions

Misconception 1: Children are better second language learners than adults.

• Children ARE better at learning pronunciation (pronunciation is not an indicator of fluency).
• Children ARE better at interacting in social situations.
•  Children USE simpler syntax and vocabulary so the standard for success is lower.

Learning a second language is as difficult for a child. It may be more difficult, as children do not have access to the memory techniques and other strategies that more experienced learners use to acquire vocabulary and the grammatical rules of a language. Children are likely to be shyer and more embarrassed. Children from some cultural backgrounds are extremely anxious when singled out and called upon to perform in a language they are in the process of learning,

Thank you to everyone for your enthusiasm and deep thinking over the course of INSET week – including the limericks and doodles 🙂
A special thanks to Arek and his amazing facilities team for preparation of venues throughout the week, and for the Friday celebration. Thank you to Chartwells for the delicious spread on Friday. Thank you to Amy for devising such a beautiful schedule.
A gigantic thank you to all of the conference session and iPad redefinition leaders. And deep gratitude to Marina, Kasson, and Juan.

A survey requesting feedback on February INSET will be sent out soon.

I wish you a great week of student learning inspired by some of the profound discussion that took place over the week.

Fellow Ukulelists,

Thank you for attending one of the ukulele sessions this week. I hope that you found it informative and fun, and that you aren’t too scared of Gs and G7s! Many thanks to Bonnie, who taught me to play the ukulele in the first place, and who was a great help today (even if she did start a round!).

All resources are found on: TeacherLargeStorage / Ukulele INSET Workshop. There you will find:

– INSET iBook (view in iBooks Author or on your iPad)

– INSET iBook that has been PDFed (videos won’t play)

– video of how to tune your ukulele using GarageBand

– Axis of Awesome 4 Chord youtube video

– miscellaneous resources – YouTube tutorials, TABs, chord sheets, lyrics, etc.

Throughout the year, I will continue throwing in more resources.

I have had a large number of people inquiry about buying ukuleles. Possible to buy off Taobao, but with very poor quality. Also possible to buy off music-street in Shanghai, if you are in the area. Lydia Yang’s music store (near Little Suguo) has a good variety of quality and sizes, and so I’ve emailed her to start a conversation about how / when we can get some ukuleles for any teachers interested.

I’ll keep you informed.

Until then, please check out Jake Shimabukuro – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQlz0G66ng

A number of colleagues have asked what is happening with Neil Bantleman and Ferdi Tjeong. They are still in gaol with about 4 weeks left before the judges make a ruling. Currently they are presenting their evidence. Laurie will be going to JIS in March for accreditation and he will take a couple of cards. I will leave these in the staffroom until Tuesday for anyone to sign (or email me and I will add your name.) These messages from around the world give much support and add strength to these men, their wives and the JIS community!   Thank you!

Good morning – welcome to Day 5 of INSET,

I hope that everyone enjoyed a stimulating day yesterday!

After PLTs, enjoy the final two conference sessions this week. The choices of sessions can be seen in both foyers and in the screen shots below. As there have been a couple of changes since Monday, please check for these updates.

Thank you enormously for all of our colleagues who have shared their passions with us this week.

And finally – our teachers certainly have rhythm and rhyme! Please make any further contributions to the limericks and other poems by 1:00pm today. Check out the NIS talent on Office 365.

See you all for our INSET celebration in the PAC at 3:00.

Enjoy,
Arden

Good morning!

Enjoy a day of creative thinking, exploring new frontiers and possibilities to enhance our students’ learning and our own professional growth.

When you have a natural break in your “flow” (see Csikszentmihalyi) – check out the growing repertoire of limericks on Office 365!

Friday morning promises to be another exciting day of conference sessions – see the final updated version attached here. These is also posted in both foyers.

Friday afternoon, we’ll gather in the PAC at 3:00 for a celebration of the week and of our new creative undertakings. There will be an opportunity for some informal sharing, drinks and some light refreshments.

Have an original day,
Arden
FebINSET2015.pdf

Staff:

Please look at the schedule for individual and group photo times. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.Yearbook mugshots and homeroom photos

Why not upcycle some of the junk in the Fish Bowl into a stunning new outfit for the Earth Hour Trashion Show on March 28th? Outfit description to the MYP Student Council by March 27th. Be ready to sashay along the catwalk!

If you would like to attend Nickie’s session this afternoon, please bring your laptop and a hard copy or virtual model (ie. graphs, tables, pictures showing vocabulary, diagrams, shapes, patterns, mind maps, flow charts, etc.) that you hope your students will be able to understand and explain.

Have a great day!

Good morning!

Please see the attached screen shots for today’s conference sessions.

Remember to Tweet your experiences, and log into Office 365 or check the white boards for today’s Limerick prompts.

Have a great day two,
Arden

All staff, please bring your laptop to today’s session on the 7 Norms of Collaboration this morning. You will need to access documents via email.
Thank you,
Jacqui

Welcome back and welcome to INSET!

To kick off our exciting week, please meet in the PAC at 8:15.

Each morning the schedule for the current and next day will be posted in the Centre Foyer.

There have already been a few changes to the week’s plans – I will send out the updated full schedule by Monday lunch.

One important change to Tuesday is that the presenter from Essential Learning Group (ELG) will not be able to lead the Speech-Language session on Tuesday. In her place, Dr Shari Rosen will lead this session at 10:40, and will offer a second session Tuesday afternoon at 1:45. Dr Rosen is the founder of ELG, a Speech-Language Pathologist, and was the 2014 recipient of the SENIA Advocacy Award.

SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCES: You should have received an email with a link to “INSET – experiences”. If you have already logged in to Office 365, click on the first link. If this is your first time, click on the “In a hurry? Use this guest link.”. Once you have opened the page, to edit, click on “Edit in browser” or “Edit document —> in Word Online”.

As there are so many opportunities for choice this week, please share your experiences.

Have an inspiring INSET week,
Arden

Congratulations to Bella Zhang who will join the PYP Mandarin teaching team for August 2015. A huge thank you to the colleagues that interviewed for the position. We are indeed fortunate to have so many talented people teaching at NIS.

Laurie